1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a portable programmable medication alarm device, which facilitates accurate administration of prescribed medications taken by patients.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
It is widely recognized that the use of medication in our society has permitted successful treatment of numerous medical conditions. Medical prescriptions written by doctors are typically recorded in computer systems which are linked together in a network accessible by pharmacists. Typically, prescription data in these computer systems is processed using a drug interaction database to determine whether a prescribed medicine is compatible with other forms of prescribed medicine being taken by the patient. If the prescribed medicine is determined compatible, then the prescription is filled and picked up or delivered to the patient at home.
Presently, dosage instructions are printed on medication bottles. However, there are thousands of medications, such as eye drops, ear drops and nasal spray, which often require complex dosage schedules having dosage levels, administration routes and instructions that may change for each specific time of administration. While the physician will often provide the patient with a written dosage schedule, patient's frequently forget to use their medications as prescribed or confuse the frequency which their medications are to be used.
In order to facilitate accurate use of prescribed medications, a number of programmable medication alarm devices have been proposed, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,088,056; 5,016,230; 4,970,669; 4,942,544; 4,905,213; 4,768,176; 4,419,016; 4,367,955; 4,483,626; and 4,837,719. In general, while prior art medication alarm devices are capable of reminding the patient of specific times that medication is to be taken during the day, they suffer from several significant shortcomings and drawbacks.
In particular, while U.S. Pat. No. 4,504,153 discloses a method for automatically programming a medication alarm device, this prior art device fails to provide patients with complete instructions required with prescription medications having different dosage levels and delivery routes at different times of administration.
In addition to providing inadequate instructions, other prior art devices are generally difficult to program and pose a high likelihood of dosage schedule programming errors.
Consequently, the prior art has not provided an easily programmable, portable medication alarm device which facilitates accurate administration of virtually any prescribed medication to be taken by a patient.
Accordingly, it is a primary object of the present invention to provide a portable programmable medication alarm device which visually displays the prescribed dosage level, delivery route and medication instructions for each specific time of medication administration that has been programmed in accordance with a dosage schedule prescribed by a doctor or pharmacist.
It is another object of the present invention to provide such a portable medication alarm device, in which the prescribed medication dosage schedule is manually programmed using predefined visual display fields, an audible alarm signal is generated upon the timed occurrence of each programmed time of medication administration, and in response thereto, a graphical indication of the programmed dosage level, delivery route and patient instructions are visually displayed for the patient to easily read and follow.
Another object of the present invention is to provide such a medication alarm device, in which the prescribed medication dosage schedule is programmed using a computer system, an audible alarm signal is generated upon the timed occurrence of each programmed time of medication administration, and in response thereto, a graphical indication of the programmed dosage level, delivery route and patient instructions are visually displayed for the patient to easily read and follow.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a medication compliance system which comprises a portable programmable medication alarm device and a computer system for programming the medication alarm device with a prescribed dosage schedule by way of automated data communications operations.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a programming interface unit for use with a conventional computer system, and which permits a prescribed medication schedule stored in memory of the computer system, to be readily loaded into a programmable medication alarm device.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a portable medication alarm device which can be releasably fastened to any medication container, programmed with a medication dosage schedule using a computer system and then carried by the patient so that he or she is reminded of when the medication should be taken, in what dosage and along what delivery route.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a medication container holder in which the programmable medication alarm devices of the present invention can be simply installed, and in which a conventional eye drop, nasal spray or other medication dispenser can be received while permitting the dispensing of prescribed medication dosages in a conventional manner.
These and other objects of the present invention will become apparent hereinafter.